MinkFlamingos

Apr 24 Disney Heroine 14 of 24

Quality of CharacterOn the surface, Jasmine and Ariel can seem very similar. They're both misunderstood, sheltered, naive girls with doting if uninvolved father's. The difference, and the reason Jasmine's score is more than double Ariel's? Jasmine is aware of these facts, and repeatedly begs her father to allow her to see something outside the palace walls. Also, when Jasmine sneaks out of the palace, she doesn't endanger anyone except herself. In fact rather than endangering her friends, Jasmine gets in trouble when she tries to feed a poor child an apple without paying for it. Good intentions. Also Jasmine has a good reason for her rebellion: she's being forced by a law to marry before her next birthday.

Overall Film QualityAlright, bring on the hate: I'm not Aladdin's biggest fan. Not as an adult, anyway. Aladdin is spirited and fun, but... I don't know why I just find the movie as a whole not as good. Maybe because, held next to it's contemporaries (it came out between Beauty and the Beast and Lion King) it just didn't stand up as well. The movie ends up scoring just above middle.

Love InterestThe boy wonder? I guess he's better than Peter Pan, but his Prince Ali character/ performance is symbolic of just how good males are at misinterpreting what women want. He has a good heart, in the end, so a middling score here.

Supporting CharactersHigher scores in this category. Iago? Carpet? Abu? Genie? Great stuff. Our villain, Jafar, ends up being just Ok to me, maybe because he's so upstaged by Iago. Also Jasmine's Dad takes a while to get his act together, but he still ends up pretty bumbling.

Derp

MusicAnother solid score. None of the songs stand out as THE BEST DISNEY EVER, but nothing that makes you want to target your ear canals for your ice pick lobotomy.

EnsembleHere, ladies and gentleman, is why Jasmine could not break into the top 10, and one of the strongest reasons that prompted me to make this list. Little girls. Prancing around. In public. In this. The only thing I find more offensive is when I see people dressing their little girls up in the Slave Leia Star Wars costume (seriously, WTF). Jasmine bombs hard, pulling out the lowest score for her outfit of any DH. You'd hope that, like Ariel, she'd change clothes and offer an alternative, more covered wardrobe option. Jasmine changes and IT GETS WORSE.

**DISCLAIMER** I do not own any of the likenesses of these heroines. All characters/likenesses are the property of Disney, and are not being used here for financial gain ****